Experience Stratford Festival with Tribune critic

Readers of the Chicago Tribune not only take civic pride in the richness of the Chicago theater, but they also tend to have strong opinions on what they find after they pay good money for a ticket. In my Friday column in On the Town, I quoted many of the messages I received after my review of Sting's "The Last Ship" appeared in the paper. These readers offered sophisticated, cogent analyses of what work that show needed prior to its Broadway opening in the fall.

If that kind of conversation appeals to you, you might think about joining me on the Theater Loop's trip to Stratford in September. We're filling a luxury bus with theater-loving readers of the Tribune, and I'll be riding along. Tribune staffers have secured good tickets to many of this season's high-profile productions at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, inarguably one of the leading theaters in North America. The town also offers distinctive shopping and, more and more these days, a plethora of fine dining, with local Ontario foods topping most menus. As part of the trip package, the Tribune has organized a boutique collection of tours, receptions and other special events, all designed to let you experience the festival in an unusually intimate way.

Readers have often complained that Stratford is hard to get to these days, so this trip is designed not only to remove the hassles of airports and shuttles and make it easy for you, but to also allow for some fun along the way. More than anything, it will be a chance to join like minds and spend a weekend immersed in the theater.

I hope you'll ride the bus on the Theater Loop's first out-of-town excursion.

A limited number of tickets for the Theater Loop trip to Canada are available at tribnation.com/events.